Waking before dawn on a mid-March morning, I'm torn between favourite things. The Shipping Forecast and the Dawn Chorus which coincide at this season. Soon, dawn will come earlier and I can listen to both. If I'm alert and attentive I can hear blackbirds singing through the storm force winds of The Shipping Forecast. This morning, they're singing in the rain. Undaunted.Yesterday, I headed for Scout Scar where skylark were singing, and curlew. A hazy morning, the sun didn't break forth until later. I found the first coltsfoot, not the beauty pictured here two years ago, but the same site- so I'll be back.

I turn my back on the town and listen for skylark. You have to listen. Skylark is an endangered species and I doubt we'll have them much longer on Scout Scar and Cunswick Fell. Too much pressure of dogs and people. I stop to chat with someone and we hear a pack of dogs yapping, toward the Scar. Minutes later, two people with half a dozen dogs head off into skylark breeding territory. It's incomprehensible. They ignore the notice, courtesy of Natural England and the Lake District National Park, telling of endangered species and ground-nesting birds and asking us to respect them and keep dogs on leads. I know this man, he's a local who enjoys birds. The yapping pack belongs to his daughter and the dogs are running loose. Why do they persist in ignoring the request and letting their dogs loose amongst endangered ground-nesting birds when the man- if not the daughter- talks enthusiastically about bird sightings? It makes no sense.But the skylarks are singing, the curlew in glorious bubbling song.